Ahead of a full day of racing on Sunday riders are on course for the EWS Pro Stage.
The Pro stage sees riders taking on a single stage with bonus points up for grabs. The times from today are added to riders' stage time tomorrow for the overall results. Check out the results below.
Elite Women
1st. Isabeau Courdurier: 15:24.050
2nd. Morgane Charre: 15:34.010
3rd. Ella Conolly: 15:41.540
4th. Melanie Pugin: 16:07.960
5th. Bex Baraona: 16:11.850
Elite Men
1st. Jesse Melamed: 13:03.590
2nd. Jack Moir: 13:12.270
3rd. Richie Rude: 13:14.370
4th. Jack Menzies: 13:20.610
5th. Ed Masters: 13:22.810
U21 Women
1st. Emmy Lan: 16:38.280
2nd. Tina Smrdel: 17:32.640
3rd. Lily Boucher: 17:57.900
4th. Justine Henry: 19:50.570
U21 Men
1st. Luke Meier-Smith: 13:26.810
2nd. Johnathan Helly: 13:35.070
3rd. Miha Smrdel: 13:45.940
4th. Emmett Hancock: 13:58.250
5th. William Scheele: 13:59.450
Master Women
1st. Fejola Stepanka Nestlerova: 17:46.920
2nd. Sandra Bohn Thomsen: 18:31.310
3rd. Maxine Filby: 19:28.400
4th. Melissa Newell: 19:31.890
5th. Mary McConneloug: 23:05.290
Master Men
1st. Karim Amour: 14:36.120
2nd. Scott Edgworth: 14:50.040
3rd. Adrian Vesenbeckh: 15:06.100
4th. Jan Vaner: 15:16.960
5th. Bradley Lauder: 15:19.960
Full ResultsElite WomenTop 50 Elite MenU21 WomenTop 50 U21 Men
Live UpdatesPro Stage PreviewThriller: 6.09km / 1088m descent / 4m climb - Stage 1 / Pro Stage
7:18 am PDT The first group of Elite Women are now taking on the Pro Stage.
7:32 am PDT While we wait for the top-ranked Elite Women to hit today's stage the current top five riders are:
1st. Ines Thoma: 16:25.550
2nd. Barbora Prudkova: 16:26.540
3rd. Nadine Ellecosta: 16:44.570
4th. Julie Duvert: 17:09.050
5th. Camille Rast: 17:11.430
8:38 am PDT Currently the lower-ranked Elite Men are on course with Guillaume Larbeyou leading with Sam Hill just over four seconds back. We should start to see the top Elite Women complete their runs soon.
8:45 am PDT Becky Cook flies into the lead by a massive 9.640 seconds.
8:47 am PDT Raphaela Richter can't match the speed of Becky Cook and goes into second place. Raphaela is still slightly over nine seconds back, this could be an amazing run from Becky.
8:48 am PDT It is now Melanie Pugin who goes fastest and does so by almost eight seconds! Melanie seemed off the pace at the first round so it will be interesting to see how she does this weekend.
8:49 am PDT Wow Morgane Charre has gone into the lead by 33 seconds!
8:52 am PDT Isabeau Courdurier manages to find a further 9.960 seconds on Morgane Charre to go fastest so far.
8:53 am PDT Bex Baraona crosses the line on the Pro Stage over 47 seconds back but this is still good enough for fourth at the moment.
8:54 am PDT Round one winner Ella Conolly is 17 seconds back meaning Isabeau Courdurier wins the Pro Stage.
8:57 am PDT The top-ranked Elite Men are now on the Pro Stage, the current fastest times are:
1st. Guillaume Larbeyou: 13:36.670
2nd. Sam Hill: 13:40.990
3rd. Vid Persak: 13:46.750
4th. Patrick Luthi: 13:47.900
5th. Evan Wall: 13:50.220
9:01 am PDT Matt Walker is the first rider to set a new fastest time going over 11 seconds up on Guillaume Larbeyou.
9:02 am PDT Charlie Murray pushes Sam Hill out of the top three and goes 13.950 seconds behind Matt Walker.
9:04 am PDT Although he is still recovering from an injury Jack Moir manages to take over 13 seconds off Matt Walker and goes fastest so far.
9:07 am PDT A great run from Jack Menzies puts him eight seconds behind Jack Moir in 2nd.
9:10 am PDT The top three are now separated by 10 seconds with Slawomir Lukasik crossing the line in third place.
9:16 am PDT Ed Masters just pulls ahead of Slawomir Lukasik by a tiny margin to go third.
9:20 am PDT Martin Maes has had a bad result on the Pro Stage going around 50 seconds back from Jack Moir. A gap this big is going to be hard to pull back over tomorrow's stages.
9:21 am PDT Jesse Melamed looking strong today with an 8.680 gap to Jack Moir at the front of the race. The top three riders are now separated by a massive 17 seconds.
9:22 am PDT Richie Rude crosses the line 10.780 seconds back and goes into third place. Jesse Melamed wins the Pro Stage!
Look at something like the NHL, all the old greats were great. But they would get lit up by a fourth liner today because hockey has generations of development behind it now.
But all that aside, my main point is that people need to temper their expectations of EWS coverage
Watch this and give me an expert analysis of where, and how this stage could be ridden much faster.
youtu.be/m3aNQadlAyg
The fastest athletes of any sport are likely not even born yet. I don't need to watch your video because I couldn't tell you shit about going faster. But I can guarantee you that somebody will go faster on every single aspect of EWS, XC and DH then anybody has gone now. Same goes for pretty much every other sport out there. Somebody will always be better.
I was mesmerised watching this. 13 mins on the limit, riding DH speeds through challenging and varying terrain, stacks of pedalling, breathing out your eyeballs.
‘Barely professional’… you are taking the piss mate.
A DH guy that regularly races EWS, he is up there but is clearly not on another level compared to the other EWS tops guys. Maes: a top EWS guy that from time to time does some WC DH races and smashes it. It goes to show the level all these athletes are at.
Having said all this, I don't think we should temper expectations for EWS coverage. With the right coverage this can quickly become bigger than XC or DH as it combines the fitness aspect of XC with the excitement of DH. Of course it's harder to cover than short track or DH, but with modern drone technology it also isn't outrageously out of reach.
The problem is more the coverage. It is much easier to broadcast DH. Think of F1 motor racing versus rally driving.
And aren’t there qualification races for the EWS? At least the website has a tab for qualifiers.
www.trailforks.com/route/big-mountain-enduro-finals-brian-head/?activitytype=1&z=10.7&lat=37.71113&lon=-112.82318
Yeah, I think that’s fair.
Agree this is not perfect.
"click pro stage - Live Timing & Race Feed"
"opens a blank page"
"refresh refresh refresh"
"blank page"
That's it for me...just grabbed my bike and went for a ride! Cheers!
But i still believe that Enduro have a lot of margin to improve as a televised sport.
youtu.be/jXQ2Dv-wRtQ
I was thinking the same thing and had hoped to see him a little higher up.
...ps: Nice one Mopps!